Muntakhab al-tawarikh 79.25
Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 79.25
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79.25.1
On the fifth of Jamada-'s-sani of the year one thousand the Sun entered Aries, and the beginning of the thirty-seventh year from the Accession took place, and they diligently shaved their beards, and this hemistich was found to give the date : “ used to say that,: ever so many scoundrels Have given their beards to the wind.” The rules and customs and observances on the occasion were the same as usual, with the addition of some new ones on the old lines. Of them are the following. The Dirhams and Dinars which had been coined with the stamps of former Emperors were to be melted down and sold for their value in gold and silver, and no trace was to be left of them in the world. And all sorts of Ashrafis and Rupees, on which there was his own royal stamps whether old or new, should all be set in circulation, and no difference of years was to be regarded. And Qulij Khan, being very diligent, every day sought out the bankers, and took bonds from them and inflicted fines on them, and many were put to death with various tortures; but for all that they would not desist from uttering counterfeit coins. The Emperor wrote and sent farmans into the uttermost parts of his dominions, containing stringent orders with regard to this matter. But it had no effect. At last by the care of Khwajah Shams-ud-din the Chief Diwan, that command was really put in force.
79.25.2
On the day of Sharaf-i-Aftab, which was the 19th degree of Aries, Ja'far Beg, whose title was A'saf Khan Bakhshi, the Emperor appointed to march against Jalalah the Roshani, who had got in advance of Abd-ullah Khan and was marching on Kabul, that with the help of Muhammad Qasim Khan, the commandant of Dihli, he might exterminate those rascals. And Nizam-ud-din Ahmad he appointed to the post of paymaster-general. And at the end of Sha'ban he appointed Zain Khan Kokah to help A'saf Khan to exterminate the remnant of the Roshanais and to colonize the district of Sawad-u-Bajur, which had been completely desolated. In the middle of the month Shavval of this year Hafiz Sultan Rakhnah of Herat, who was a most excellent person, of whom a host of worthy traces are remaining, notably the garden and buildings of Sarhind, which have no parallel in Hind, passed in his ninetieth year from this lodging of deceit to the abode of happiness. The date was found by way of riddle in the following verse: “A fissure came into the garden, And the water flowed away.” And Faizi of Sarhind found two lines to give the date: “The garden became without water,” And another:— “Since he was buried in a corner of the garden, Seek his date from the corner of the garden.” And another:— “O Hadi!”
79.25.3
On the twenty-fourth of Shawwal [news of the rebellion of] Yadgar Kal, nephew of Mirza Yusuf Khan Razwi, who had left him as his deputy in Kashmir and set off to the Court, arrived. And the Emperor having left Qulij Khan to settle public affairs in Lahor, himself crossed the river Rawi in the middle of the rainy season, and joining his eldest son advanced, hunting as he went, as far as the river Chanab. At this place the news became current that Yadgar had fought a battle with Husain Beg Shaikh ‘Umari Badakhshi, who was collector of the revenues of Kashmir, and had come off victorious; and that the Kashmiris had cut off the ears and nose of Qazi ‘Ali Baghdadi, the enemy of the zamindars (who held the post of Diwan of Kashmir, and had brought forward accounts wide of the truth, and containing absurd details and so vexed the soldiery and the ryots), and had stuck his pen through the lobe of his ear, sent him back again ; and this chronogram was found for the “When Qazi ‘Ali Baghdadi Brought the anger of Yadgar upon him, The pen of the Munshi of Fate wrote The date of his death, the obnoxious one is dead.” After this Yadgar in accordance with the ancient customs of the place set a jewelled turban on his bald head and borrowed the name of Sultan :— “The crown of empire, and diadem of royalty How shall it come to every bald man, God forbid !”
79.25.4
They say that the custom of Kashmir is that on the day of the accession they stand drawn up in two ranks holding their naked swords over the new king’s head. They say that on this account Yadgar at the time of the reading of the khutbah fell into a tremour, and fainted, and did not recover for some time. One of the incidents which occurred is the following. The very same day that he found a posie for his seal, and ordered it to be cut in his presence, a splinter from it came off and struck him in the eye. He rubbed his eye for a long time and cried out. From these omens they perceived that his rule would not be a long one :— “Empire which comes quickly, lasts not long ; That is true empire, which comes gradually.” Husain Beg Shaikh ‘Umri fled, and thinking half a life a great gain left the passes of Kashmir as quickly as possible, and reaching Rajauri, which is between Kashmir and the end of his journey, he there waited for orders. Yadgar gave mansabs and jagirs to his men, and giving them all sorts of titles appropriated the treasures and horses and arms of Mirza Yusuf Khan. And his wives and female slaves, are mounted on small horses, and are the very counterpart of the disposition and nature of their master Mirza Yusuf Khan, of whom the following verse would be a good description: "All your Amirs are babblers And all their sons are disagreeable."
79.25.5
The Emperor suspecting Mirza Yusuf Khan, who was in the camp, consigned him for some days to the charge of Shaikh Abu-l-Fazl. Meanwhile he sent forward Shaikh Farid Bakshi with Qazi 'Abd-ur-rahim of Luk'hnou and another army, and himself awaited the Prince's arrival on the banks of the Chanalb. At P'hambar, which is the beginning of the passes and mountainous country, news arrived, that Yadgar had come out of the city Kashmir with a large force, intent on fighting, and that he had alighted at a pass called Hirapur, and at night with the greatest carelessness had given himself up to debauchery in his tent. In the middle of the night some of the servants of Mirza Yusuf Khan, together with a band of Afghans, attacked him and put him to death. They brought his treacherous head after three days to Court. This victory so quickly gained was a lesson to men. They reckoned that from the accession of Yadgar to the day that his head was brought into the camp was forty days. His head came into the army like a ball in a game at tennis, and afterwards was exalted to the battlements of the fortress of Lahor. When in the month of Zi-hijjah of this year the Author came from Badaun to the Camp in accordance with orders, Hakim Humam represented to the Emperor at the station of P'hambar, that I wished to pay him homage. The Emperor asked how long I had been absent from my post? He replied, Five months. The Emperor asked, On what pretext? He replied, On the score of sickness.
79.25.6
And he brought a petition from the grandees of Badaun, and When the Emperor had read them all, he said: “A sickness won’t last for five months.” And so he did not give me permission to make the Kuruish. So I remained repulsed, grieved, and disappointed in the camp, which was left with Prince Dānyāl at Rohtās. But I made my fortress the reading through of that impregnable castle, viz., the words of the Best of the Prophets (God bless him, and his family and give them all peace!) and the repetition of the Qasīdah-i burdah; and He who answers the prayer of the distressed accepted this my sad and humble petition, so that after five months the occasion of His Majesty’s return from Kashmīr to Lāhōr rendered him favourably disposed towards me, and on the pretext of my making a translation of the Jāmi‘-i Rashīdī, which is a very huge volume, some kind and true friends, such as Mīr Nizām-ud-dīn, mentioned my name confidentially at his private audience. And so a command was issued that I should wait upon him. After his return from Kashmīr on the day of of the festival month of Bahman, the divine month, which corresponded with the seventeenth of Rabī‘-ul-ākhir of this year the Emperor granted me an audience. I offered him an ashrafī, and approached him with the greatest respect, and so the removal of that cloud of alienation and suspicion became facilitated, thank God for it!
79.25.7
An order for making an epitome of the Jāmi‘-i-Rashīdī was with the approval of ‘Allāmī Shaikh Abu-l-Fazl issued to me. Of the whole book I took the genealogical tree of the Khalīfs of the Abbāsides and of the Ommeyades of Egypt, which is traced to the Prophet (God bless him!), and thence down to Adam (peace be upon him!), and also the pedigree of the other prophets I translated in extenso from Arabic into Persian, and presented it to the Emperor, and it was put into the imperial library.